1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a printing apparatus of an ink-jet system or the like.
2. Description of the Related Art
In printing apparatuses of an ink jet system which conduct recording by ejecting ink on a recording medium, the ink is generally supplied to a plurality of ejection channels of an ink jet head from an ink supply source, an actuator such as a heat generating element or piezoelectric element is selectively actuated, and the ejection of ink is carried out from an ejection nozzle provided at the distal end of the ejection channels. In such a printing apparatus, printing is typically conducted on paper or the like serving as a recording medium, but recording is also sometimes conducted on cloth such as T-shirts.
When printing is conducted on paper or the like, if the user inputs a printing command from an external equipment such as a personal computer connected to the printing apparatus, printing is usually executed without conducting any operations at the printing apparatus. However, for example, when the residual amount of ink is small, this is detected by an appropriate method, the user is informed about it, and printing processing is carried out after the ink cartridge is replaced. For example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2003-72105 discloses a configuration in which an ink cartridge state display LED is prepared and comes on if the residual amount of ink becomes small or when the ink supply is disrupted or the ink cartridge is not properly inserted.
On the other hand, when printing is conducted on cloth such as a T-shirt, in most configurations the recording medium has to be strongly fixed to a holding device such as a platen, printing has to be executed after confirming that the printing is possible at the printing apparatus side, and printing cannot be automatically started merely by the printing command from the external equipment. In such printing apparatuses for printing on cloth, an indication device such as a button for indicating the printing start is provided, and the user starts printing by pushing the printing start button after confirming that several conditions are satisfied, those conditions relating to the residual amount of ink, completion of printing data reception, installation of waste ink tank, fixing of the recording medium, and the like.
However, information on whether the conditions required for printing start have been satisfied has to be confirmed by displaying at separate LED lamps or liquid-crystal displays, and as the number of conditions increases, the number of items that have to be confirmed also rises, making the procedure inconvenient for the user.